The thing about Ahmadinejad's treatment is, he's not a good guy, but it's a double standard

[jpgray]

Same double standard we had with Saddam, and currently have with Castro. Yeah, none of them are great guys by any standard. On basic human rights, they all suck to varying degrees. Problem is, we don't apply the same standard of asshole criticizing to every asshole who sucks on a similar level. Witness our behavior towards Musharraf in Pakistan, Abdullah in Saudi Arabia, Jiabao in China, etc., etc. It's great -in some ways- when we occasionally match up political expedience and belligerence to criticize world leaders deserving of criticism, but when we cozy up with many other similarly bad guys, the criticism (however deserved) gets harder to root for.

[eleny]

1. Agreed

[EFerrari]

2. Thank you. Let's vilify these guys for their real faults where they lay

not for WH talking points.

[DemKR]

3. 100%! A+ Agreed n/t

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

4. Yup

well said

[Blue-Jay]

5. I MUST like him because Bush hates him!*

And THAT, my friends, is a sad reflection of many of the opinions posted on DU.

It's OK if you think (rightly so) that they are both assholes. In fact, Bush & Ahmadinejad are two sides of the same goddamned authoritative, power-grubbing, loves-the-spotlight, stupid coin, if you take a little time to think about it.

*BTW - I doubt that Bush actually hates the guy. He's just an obstacle to be vilified who is in the way of the goals of this administration (and by proxy, the PNAC folks).